PLEASE CONTACT SHARON@AWARD.ORG.ZA OR HUGO@AWARD.ORG.ZA FOR VIDEO ACCESS
COVID-19 is a vivid reminder that we need to be comfortable with complexity and uncertainty if we are to be productive in making a difference. Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is a sense-making tool that supports social learning, helping programme implementers take small steps and learn their way forward. A social learning approach is a commitment to develop a shared developmental agenda, goals and practices with others. It is not clear at the start where this might lead to, so it becomes important to trust but also carefully notice the process. Otherwise, the open-ended unknown may lead to paralysis, or over-planning. In this webinar we share our experiences of using complexity-sensitive M&E (developmental evaluation) in the RESILIM-O programme to support project staff working under the above conditions. We share what we have learned about harnessing M&E to track processes and early progress when eventual outcomes are still a long way off, to encourage reflection on failures as well as successes, to build understanding of and competence in M&E within the organisation, and to support learning. We explore the concept of ‘evaluation readiness’ and using different M&E approaches at different stages in the life of a programme, as well as the skills and dispositions needed for developmental M&E. Our experience is that a collaborative and integrated approach to M&E, where M&E is “everyone’s business” and is thoroughly woven into the organisation, helps staff to feel more comfortable with the complexity and uncertainty inherent in facilitating social learning processes.
Webinar Resources
Harnessing monitoring & evaluation for learning. Experiences from the RESILIM-O Program 2019
– Karen Kotschy, Vhutshilo Mudau, Eureta Rosenberg
The Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Learning (MERL) system was developed by AWARD, MERL staff and members of the program’s reference group, with support from USAID. This brochure describes the basics of the MERL system in this brochure.
Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Learning for the USAID RESILIM-O Program
– Eureta Rosenberg with input from Karen Kotschy, Jane Burt, Vhutshilo Mudau, Sharon Pollard and Derick du Toit
This document describes the approach taken to Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Learning (MERL) in the RESILIM-O (Resilience in the Olifants Basin) program which is implemented through a cooperative agreement between USAID Southern Africa and AWARD (the Association for Water and Rural Development).
Annual Report 2019
2018/2019 Financial Year
This annual report covers the seventh year of the RESILIM-O Program from October 2018 to September 2019. It is also the last full year of project-based activities before the programme starts close-out between Oct 2019 and March 2020.
Annual Report 2018
2017/2018 Financial Year
This annual report covers the sixth year of the RESILIM-O Programme from October 2017 to September 2018. This marks a period of significant progress in the implementation of some 25 projects related to water and natural resources management and climate change adaptation in the Olifants River Basin. It embraces a period of deepening work with and institutionalisation of our systemic, social learning…
Annual Report 2017
2016/2017 Financial Year
This annual report, from October 2016 to September 2017, covers the fifth year of the RESILIM-O Programme. This marks a period of significant progress in the implementation of some twenty projects related to water and natural resources management and climate change adaptation in the Olifants River Basin. It embraces a period of deepening work with and institutionalisation of our systemic…
Annual Report 2016
2015/2016 Financial Year
This annual report, from October 2015 to September 2016, marks the transition in our action-research to practice where, based on findings from Phase I, activities that focus on biodiversity and climate change adaptation in the Olifants Basin have started. Phase II is designed to take the outputs of Phase 1 into action through testing, reflexive learning and hence institutionalisation…
Annual Report 2015
2014/2015 Financial Year
This Report covers RESILIM-O’s Implementation Period from October 1st2014 to September 30th2015. It has been written to fulfil the requirements of the Cooperative Agreement between AWARD and USAID Southern Africa. The report provides an overview of project activities undertaken, quantitative and qualitative results, a measure of impact using baseline data and…
Annual Report 2014
2013/2014 Financial Year
This report has been structured for multiple readers and will evolve into an online publication. It includes activities from the last quarter (July to September 2014), in addition to a cumulative annual report from 2014.